In one of the most amazing finishes to a game of rugby youre ever likely to see, Leicester Tigers progressed to the Final of the Heineken Cup after a dramatic Penalty Shootout against the Cardiff Blues.

The match itself was a classic, with the Millennium Stadium once again being the stage for this incredible piece of theatre that played out in front of a crowd that sat on the edge of their seats throughout.

The Tigers led 26-12 at one stage after tries from Scott Hamilton and Geordan Murphy, and four penalties from Julien Dupuy. The game was theirs, and it looked as though Cardiff had no way back.

The game shifted radically though when Craig Newby and Murphy were handed yellow cards as they defended desperately. Cardiff took advantage and Jamie Roberts and Tom James both scored sensational tries, levelling matters at 26-26.

Extra time commenced, and neither side could score after the two ten minute halves, leading to a rare occurrence the rugby penalty shootout.

Kicked from the 22 meter line, directly in front of posts, each side would have 5 attempts before it goes to sudden death.

We've got the full shootout for you, so sit back and enjoy all the drama as it unfolds.

painful, AWFUL to watch blues losing in this way.. sooo close.. so close.. :'( they deserved the win taking into account how hard they fought and how they got struck back when all hope seemed to be lost to leicester.. my heart was racing those last 10 minutes of the match + extra time!! haha.

Two yellow cards as they defended desperately? More like as they defended illegally. I'm sick of watching people intentionally offend to stop a try knowing that they will only get a yellow card. And I'm sick of Leicester cheating - Tuilagi's band, Julian white gouging? And now these two yellow cards. I'm sure there are more, but I can't bring myself to watch any more Leicester games than I have to.

I personally thought this was an amazing match to watch, including the penalty shootout.
For those people using the point about it being forwards who end up kicking, nobody makes an issue about a forward who scores a drop goal in a match so why should this be any different?
On that front Craig Newby's kick was as good as any of the 'proper' kickers from the backs.

Leicester, according to EVERY neutral report I read, deserved to win on the overall run of play. That's not to take anything away from an outstanding Cardiff comeback, but overall Leicester played the better rugby.

Secondly, Newby was sinbinned for an offence Martyn Williams had committed twice in the last 10 minutes. Where's the justice in that?

Dupuy was allowed to come on for Hipkiss as a blood sub which was verified by match officials. It would be stupid to bring on somebody else when Leicester had a kicker available.

All in all, great match but horrible way to decide it. Sympathy for the Blues.

Poor way to decide a match, though great drama to watch. I'd prefer to see the 1st 2 OTs played and then sudden death. The drama would then be stupendous.

If Tom Croft does not get to replace Quinlan when he gets rightly suspended, the selectors are fools. He played a brilliant game and offers so match, closing speed on the hard ground (brilliant tackle on Halfpenny), superb support play, excellent at reclaiming the line out and a dynamo at the line out. He will handle the rough stuff and his "lack" of weight will not be an issue.

Why can't sudden death overtime just go on indefinitely? I mean this isn't soccer after all scoring is fairly regular. In rugby it isn't required for every member on a team to be able to kick penalty goals so why should a game be decided that way? It would be more exciting to have the game go until someone scores anything. Remember the 2003 world cup final and how exciting OT was then? Imagine golden point!

The blues started playing 10 minutes before OT, they were pathetic before that, barely managing to get through the Tigers defense with a 2 player superiority. If not for the two yellow cards Leicester would have rocked them.
Glad that it was Williams who shit himself for the shootout, partly serves the dickweed for all the yellow cards he never got

You're damn right, Tom Croft has to go on the Lions tour, too good to miss it. Pace, size, strength, skills, he has the lot.. I'd have him starting the tests.

Considering the shoot out doesn't come around too often its not the worst way to end it, pretty damn exciting. feel bad for martyn williams as he really is a great player. if these two teams carried on playing for a whole day id say it would have been deadlocked.

Tom James did really really well on that try. i thought it was awesome. proably better leicster won. could you imagine the cardiff and leinster fans together? they'd clash so bad! diaster. would've ruined the whole game :P

Leicester played better even if they were more conservative, they still deserved to win.

As a fan of non of these teams it's really a shame to see Leicester make the final but at least Leinster got it so it shouldn't be too boring.

I can't believe rugby has been reduced to placed kicks! We all lose out in the end because of this. There's no easy way to avoid it but something like number of tries, earliest try, etc couldn't be any worse.

it was an awful way for us to go out.. we could have had it too i believe if shanklin kicked instead of tom james?
But oh well, i don't believe the better team won, but the team that played better on the day did.. We had plenty of opportunities to get some points in extra time too, we just didn't take them. Luck hasn't been with welsh rugby this season, haha.
A real shame for the blues, but good luck to leciester in the final, i believe it's theirs again.

What is with all these comments? I thought the shoot-out was so exciting. And for everyone saying that they should play until the first score, they had played 20 mins of extra time but with no score, and they both had equal tries. They can't just keep playing all day. This is obviously the best feasible option.

I don't know why people feel sorry for the blues as they didn't deserve to win.
Personally I thought it was good to watch on this occassion as we've never seen it before but wouldn't want it to happen often.
I'm not sure how many people here have played 100 minutes of rugby but to suggest the extra time to just carry on until someones scores or take people off isn't really feasable due to tiredness.

^^^^Totally agree, Agony to see Martyn Williams of all people to fluff it. Leicester played well but they are a shit side who play very boring rugby. Nice to see 3/4 teams in the semi's from the Magners League. Heres hoping the Irish luck doesnt run out on the 23rd Brilliant match btw!

Thats a crap way for the blues to go out... feel bad for martyn williams in the twighlight of his career, think shanks should of kicked instead of tom james.. all respect to tom but shanks is a better kicker... tom has just been a good runner, he was in youth and is at the blues...

To the guy who said that he is sick of us (liecester) cheating should shut the fuck up. All of those incidents that he named where all punished with the suitable sentence. Bules never deserved to win. i admit the they scored two brilliant tries at the end, but they could only do that when they had 2 extra men. I htink it is fantastic that williams missed aswell. out of all the people...

I did get annoyed by the "booing" of the Cardiff supporters. Was probably louder then the Leicester "booing". Sorry, but shut the fuck up during the kicker is concentrating and then you can shout or whatever. Great the "booing"-fans didnt get a final

As a tigers fan I loved the result, we did deserve the win though I feel very bad for Martin Williams, no one deserves to be in that position.

To all you fashionable tigers haters Im glad you have the chance to wine on about us again as we play in another final. Cant understand your mentality myself but maybe thats because we dont concern ourselves about anyone elses team other than our own.

What amazed me though was the disipline and defence both teams showed in the extra time period to give no one even the chance to have a shot at goal or a try chance, brilliant stuff!

As a neutral observer and i thought it was poetic justice that it was williams who lost the game as he was never binned for the blatent offences he made which were just as bad as any made by the leicester players (even the commentators pointed that out so don't think i'm making stuff up)

I think, as both teams would have deserved a win, the penalty shoot out was a fantastic way to end it, wish this happened more often!

It was devastating to watch, the fact that the match came down to who had the most kickers. Surely there's a better system where three kickers from each side kick from increasingly difficult positions till the inevitable happens.
Fair play to Leicester they had a better game on the day. As the tournament went though the Blues were the better team.

To the person who said cardiff didnt deserve to win cos they booed the kickers. You're right. They do it all the time, they're the worst in wales for it and you go down to semi pro level where the true rugby fans in wales are and you'll find complete respect.
Great tension and drama in the game, was always going to be heartbreaking for whoever lost. Overall leicester deserved to win, cardiff did well to come back though.

It certainly seems dramatic on TV, but I was at the Millenium Stadium that day, and when they announced there would be a "kicking competition" over the tannoy, the general atmosphere in around the stadium was that of "You MUST be joking!" It just felt silly.